r/LifeProTips: rules, karma requirements and posting culture
A 23 million member, text-only board for practical tips. Strict title format, a hidden karma minimum, and moderators who remove anything that is advice, common sense or a product plug.
Life Pro Tips · Open on Reddit
- Members
- 23.1M
- Created
- 2010
- New posts a day
- 18.6
- Comments on a typical post
- 36
- New posts removed
- 34%
The short answer
r/LifeProTips requires karma to post and refuses to say how much. The submit page tells you to earn it in other subreddits first, and warns that using free karma subreddits gets you banned. Every post is a text post, must start with LPT or LPT Request, and must be flaired. About a third of new posts in our sample did not stay up, nearly all of those removed by moderators, usually for being general advice, common sense, a banned topic or a product recommendation.
Who posts here
Tips are written for the general public and need no background: how to move house for less, what to photograph before returning a rental, how to cool a room with a fan. Anything technical is spelled out step by step. The bar is on the tip, not the reader. A post that is really a question, a vent or a life philosophy gets removed, and questions are only allowed as request posts on Fridays.
- Ordinary Reddit users sharing one trick that saved them money, time or hassle.
- People with trade or professional knowledge passing on a safety or money tip from their work.
- A very large general audience that votes and comments but rarely posts.
- People looking for life advice or wanting to vent, whose posts are regularly removed as not being tips.
- Accounts trying to slip in a product, an offer or a link, which the rules are built to stop.
Karma and account requirements
What it takes to get a post through in r/LifeProTips.
| Karma | Required, and the number is deliberately not published. Earn it in other subreddits first. Farming it in free karma subreddits is a bannable offence.Mods' wording: “We do not give out the amount of karma needed to post here” |
|---|---|
| Account age | Not stated publicly. |
| Title format | Titles must start with LPT or LPT Request and describe the tip. The wiki says titles under a minimum length are removed automatically, without giving the length. The typical title is about 16 words.Mods' wording: “All submissions must start with "LPT" or "LPT Request."” |
| Post flair | Required. Every post in our sample had one. Miscellaneous is the most used at about 23%, then Careers & Work, Social and Food & Drink at around 10% each.Mods' wording: “Please remember to flair your post!” |
| Post type | Text only. All posts in our sample were text posts, and link, image, video and poll posts are switched off. |
| Request posts | Posts asking for a tip are only allowed on Fridays.Mods' wording: “Request posts are Fridays only.” |
What you can post
| Post type | Subreddit setting | Share of recent posts |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Allowed | 100% |
| Link | Not allowed | 0% |
| Image | Not allowed | 0% |
| Video | Not allowed | 0% |
| Poll | Not allowed | 0% |
Post flairs in use
- Miscellaneous 23%
- Careers & Work 11%
- Social 11%
- Food & Drink 10%
- Home & Garden 10%
- Productivity 9%
- Finance 7%
- Computers 5%
- Electronics 5%
- Traveling 3%
What happens to a new post
Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.
- Stayed up64%
- Removed by Reddit's filters3%
- Held by AutoModerator<1%
- Removed by moderators30%
- Deleted by the author3%
Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.
What happened when we posted here
We have posted here ourselves. This is how our own posts and comments fared.
- Stayed up
- 30%
- Removed by Reddit's filters
- 0%
- Removed by moderators
- 70%
- Period
- August 2025
The rules, in the mods' words
- 1
No rude, offensive, racist, homophobic, sexist, aggressive, or hateful posts/comments.
- 2
Posts must begin with "LPT" or "LPT Request” and be flaired. Titles should be descriptive.
Posts must begin with "LPT" or "LPT Request” and be flaired. Titles should be descriptive. The tip and the problem it solves must be explained thoroughly. Request posts are Fridays only.
- 3
Tag tips for adult audiences as NSFW.
- 4
Do not post tips that could be considered common sense, common courtesy, unethical, or illegal.
- 5
Do not post tips that are based on spurious, unsubstantiated, or anecdotal claims.
- 6
Posts concerning the following are not allowed:
- Religion - Politics - Relationships - Law & legislation - Parenting - Driving - Medicine or hygiene - Mental health - ChatGPT or AI services This list is not exhaustive. Moderators may remove posts considered to deviate from the spirit of the subreddit.
- 7
Do not post tips in reaction to other posts. Reposts may be removed.
Do not post tips in reaction to other posts. Reposts may be removed.
- 8
Do not post tips that are advertisements or recommendations of products or services.
Do not post tips that are advertisements or recommendations of products or services. No tips about using a commercial product for its intended purpose.
- 9
Content that trolls and/or doesn't substantially contribute to the discussion may be removed.
Moderators may remove posts or comments at their discretion for being low-quality or low-effort. Off-topic submissions (posts that are not Life Pro Tips) will be removed.
These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.
The culture
r/LifeProTips is one of the largest subreddits on the site, with about 23 million members, and it runs on a narrow definition. The sidebar says a tip is a specific action with definitive results. It then spends several paragraphs on what does not count: advice, which it defines as guidance or a recommendation, and aphorisms, which are clever sayings. Most arguments with the moderators are about that line.
The format is fixed. Every post is text, starts with LPT, carries a flair, and states the tip in the title itself. The body, usually around 110 words, explains the problem and why the tip works. Only about one title in ten is a question. When a tip lands it lands big: the typical post that stays up gets around 35 comments, and the best recent ones reached thousands of upvotes.
The list of banned subjects is long and covers a lot of ordinary life: religion, politics, relationships, law, parenting, driving, medicine and hygiene, mental health, and AI services. Moderators removed 30% of the posts in our sample, and the rules give them open discretion to pull anything they consider low quality or not a real tip. A first offence can bring an immediate ban that works as a warning and can be appealed.
What lands
- A concrete way to save real money on a common chore. The top recent post was about cutting the cost of a house move by renting the truck yourself and hiring help only for loading and unloading.
- Document-it-first tips that protect you in a dispute, such as filming a rental car before you drive off or photographing every room when you leave a rental.
- Safety tips most people have never heard, like the emergency number posted at a rail crossing.
- Phone and computer tips with exact steps: freeing storage, a setting most people have not found, a scam pattern to recognise.
- Home fixes with a clear mechanism, such as using a fan to push hot air out of one window so cool air comes in another.
What gets removed or ignored
- General life advice and encouragement, like telling people to keep inviting a friend who always declines, or to worry less about the future. The sidebar says advice is not a tip.
- Common sense and tips that have been posted many times before, such as waiting a day before an online purchase or picking three tasks for the day.
- Questions and vents posted as tips outside the Friday request window, including asking readers how they relax or how to get a life back on track.
- Anything that reads as an offer or a recommendation: discounted phones, easy money, a promise to teach readers a secret.
- Tips about Reddit itself, and tips that touch a banned topic such as hygiene or law.
The unwritten rules
- Put the whole tip in the title. Titles that tease, or make people open the post to learn the tip, do worse, and the wiki says titles should not be inaccurate, joking or low effort.
- Explain the problem as well as the fix. The rules ask for both, and a one-line body under a vague title is the look of a post about to be removed.
- Only post what you have done yourself. The submit page says theoretical tips are not allowed.
- Naming a brand is risky even with no stake in it. The rule covers recommendations as well as advertisements, and tips about using a commercial product for its intended purpose.
- If you are banned, you have to name the rule you broke to appeal, and the ban is not reversed if you have deleted the post.
Self-promotion
The rule bans tips that are advertisements or recommendations of products or services, and adds that tips about using a commercial product for its intended purpose are not allowed either. The wiki says titles that are just links or self-promotion are removed automatically. In practice this is a closed door. A tip that mentions a brand in passing can survive, and a few in our sample did, but a post built around one product or service is removed and can bring a ban. Nothing here works for promotion except a tip that stands on its own with every brand name taken out.
How people write here
- Typical post length
- 111 words
- Typical title length
- 16 words
- Titles phrased as a question
- 10%
- Typical comment length
- 22 words
- Comments that include a link
- 0%
- Posts that carry a flair
- 100%
When people post
- 0:00 UTC, 11
- 1:00 UTC, 14
- 2:00 UTC, 13
- 3:00 UTC, 18
- 4:00 UTC, 11
- 5:00 UTC, 6
- 6:00 UTC, 13
- 7:00 UTC, 8
- 8:00 UTC, 11
- 9:00 UTC, 14
- 10:00 UTC, 15
- 11:00 UTC, 16
- 12:00 UTC, 14
- 13:00 UTC, 17
- 14:00 UTC, 19
- 15:00 UTC, 34
- 16:00 UTC, 27
- 17:00 UTC, 26
- 18:00 UTC, 21
- 19:00 UTC, 32
- 20:00 UTC, 23
- 21:00 UTC, 17
- 22:00 UTC, 10
- 23:00 UTC, 10
New posts by hour of day, UTC.
Top keywords
The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/LifeProTips.
- lpt 407 posts
- phone 33 posts
- instead 46 posts
- remember 23 posts
- trick 12 posts
- saved 18 posts
- less 33 posts
- save 22 posts
- paper 17 posts
- forget 13 posts
- tip 11 posts
- toilet 11 posts
- lpt stop 4 posts
- especialmente til 4 posts
- es especialmente 4 posts
- toilet paper 6 posts
- hand 19 posts
- quick photo 4 posts
- easier 17 posts
- often 24 posts
- bag 9 posts
- wash 9 posts
- sarah 5 posts
- throw 10 posts
- sorting options 3 posts
- saved somewhere 3 posts
- quit phone 3 posts
- privacy email 3 posts
- original sorting 3 posts
- online chats 3 posts
- lpt si 3 posts
- lpt don 3 posts
- lpt create 3 posts
- lpt buy 3 posts
- hand soap 3 posts
- dpo privacy 3 posts
- chats saved 3 posts
- addiction far 3 posts
- less annoying 4 posts
- air 10 posts
Common questions
How much karma do you need to post in r/LifeProTips?
The moderators will not say. The submit page states that you need karma to post, that the amount is not given out, and that it exists to fight spam. It tells you to earn karma in other subreddits and come back, and warns that using free karma subreddits to get around it leads to a ban.
Can I recommend a product or service in r/LifeProTips?
No. The rules ban tips that are advertisements or recommendations of products or services, and tips about using a commercial product for its intended purpose. Titles that are links or self-promotion are removed automatically.
Why was my r/LifeProTips post removed?
Moderators removed about 30% of posts in our sample. The usual reasons are that the post was advice or a saying and not a specific action, it was common sense or a repost, the title did not start with LPT, it was a question posted on a day other than Friday, or it touched a banned topic such as relationships, parenting, driving, law, medicine or AI services.
What makes a good post in r/LifeProTips?
A specific action with a clear result, stated in the title and explained in around 100 words of text. The tips that do best save money, prevent a dispute or improve safety, and the reader can act on them the same day. Start the title with LPT, add a flair, and only post something you have tried.
Data as of October 4, 2026. Numbers come from public Reddit data (the Arctic Shift archive and GummySearch) sampled on this date. Removal share counts posts taken down by moderators, AutoModerator or Reddit's own filters. Banner and icon belong to the community. Moderators change rules without notice, so treat the sidebar as the final word.
